This election season, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney wants you to know that he is firmly against blood-sucking parasites that feed off the general public and spread malaise.

For once, he’s not talking about big-government-loving Democrats or that pesky 47 percent.
It’s unclear what or who has motivated — Atonement for Seamus? Direct order from Sheldon Adelson? — the multimillionaire Mormon to pick a fight with Lyme disease. But as this mailer stuffed into a Northern Virginia mailbox proves, Team Romney will no longer tolerate the black-legged tick’s reign of terror.

According to the campaign flier, the bacterial infection has reached epidemic status in Virginia — a claim that appears to be at odds with the findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2011, 13 other states have registered more confirmed cases of Lyme disease than Virginia. Delaware leads the nation with about 85 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while about nine Virginians fell ill during the same time period.

Romney clearly views the issue as an opportunity for tort reform, vowing to “provide local physicians with protection from lawsuits to ensure they can treat the disease with the aggressive antibiotics that are required.” If caught early enough, the CDC suggests most people snap back after just a few weeks of oral treatment.